Blind Date
by okteiviablake
Summary: Lincoln and Octavia are both set up on blind dates with different people, but fate has other plans. [Modern AU]


"No," Raven declared when she saw her best friend. "You are _not_ wearing that."

Octavia looked down at herself. She'd donned on a pretty pink dress with a small bow around her midsection.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked, with a deep frown as she passed a hand down the material. "It's a date, right? I'm trying to look all fancy."

"But you're not fancy! You should look like yourself," Raven explained. But her friend just kept staring at her herself in the mirror, looking glum. Raven groaned and rolled her eyes. "Here, let me help you."

She set to work on Octavia's wardrobe.

Raven Reyes, her roommate and best friend since middle school, had insisted that she should 'get back out there' and 'meet someone new' after her terrible break-up a month ago. Her friend was completely adamant that she needed to get over the cheating piece of shit that was her ex-boyfriend.

So, of course, like any best friend would, she'd set her up on a blind date.

The truth was she was hesitant about getting back out there after her painful and still recent break-up. And, to be honest, she doubted this date would lead anywhere. She was just indulging her friend.

"Where did you even get something pink?" Raven wondered aloud as she rummaged through clothes.

Octavia shrugged lightly. "Clarke."

 _Ah!_ That would explain it. While their friend Clarke loved pink, Octavia hated it and didn't own a single clothing item in the color.

Octavia put a hand on her hip. "When did you become an expert on fashion, Reyes?"

"I'm not. I _am_ , however, an expert on Octavia Blake. And this," she added, pointing at the dress. "isn't you. You're not girly."

"Ha, ha," she said drily. "Very cute, Reyes."

"I'm serious, O. You should be yourself."

Being herself hadn't been good enough last time. She pushed the gloomy thought away. _Screw him_. She was better than this and she wasn't going to mope around for that douchebag.

"This," Raven decided. "This is you."

She'd picked out a pair of black leather pants, a sequined gold top, with a black blazer to top it. Raven shoved the clothes toward Octavia, who took them numbly.

"You're gonna look super hot. Now hurry the hell up and get dressed," she scolded lightly, smirking all the while. "You're gonna be late for your big date."

Then, she left the room to give her friend some privacy.

Octavia sighed when the door closed.

Raven's excitement wasn't contagious. Not with her anyway. Besides the hesitation and fear of meeting this new guy, Octavia still wasn't sure that Raven playing match-maker was such a good idea. Octavia loved her, but with the likes of Finn Collins and Kyle Wick on her ex-list, Raven wasn't exactly known for having the best taste in men… And with everything Octavia had just been through, she did _not_ need another creep like her ex had been.

Still, she had decided to give it a chance. _What could it hurt?_ she thought to herself. It was just a date, right? Singular. If she didn't like the guy, she didn't have to see him ever again.

Octavia changed out of the dress and into the clothes Raven had chosen for her. After putting on her black heels, she moved to the full-length mirror and took a good long look at herself.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Damn…" she murmured to herself.

Raven was right, of course. She _did_ look hot.

To complete the look, Octavia put her hair up on a tight bun, securing it with bobby pins. She didn't wear much make-up on a daily basis, but since the occasion called for it, she went for it. She decided to go with something light and natural, only with a strip of black eyeliner framing her light green eyes with a classic cat eye.

Around her neck was the ever present thin gold chain with her initial dangling that her brother had given her on her 18th birthday. She cherished his gift very much and never took it off.

She took one last look in the mirror.

 _This is it._

Then, she squared her shoulders and walked out.

In the living room, Raven sat holding her tablet, mindlessly scrolling through Facebook as she waited. She glanced up when she heard Octavia come in.

"Yes!" Raven exclaimed with she saw her. "O, you look amazing. This date is gonna rock."

"Yeah," she looked down at herself again. "Thank for the help, Rae."

Raven set the tablet aside and got up. She walked to her friend and took her hands.

"Look…" Raven began quietly. Octavia looked up, startled at her friend's sudden seriousness. "I know you're not very excited about tonight. And I know I'm being kinda pushy… But you deserve to be happy, Octavia."

Raven gave her a reassuring smile before continuing, "And I know that bastard broke your heart, but Jasper's a really nice guy," she promised. "Everything's gonna be great."

Octavia smiled, even though she still wasn't convinced.

"Besides… who knows? Things might take a turn," Raven went on, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "You might even get lucky tonight…"

Octavia sighed and turned away.

"Get you some, girl!" her friend encouraged excitedly.

Slightly exasperated but amused, Octavia picked up her purse and moved toward the front door. "Okay. Going now," she announced.

As she closed the front door, she heard Raven calling out to her, "Good luck!"

She had a feeling she would certainly need it.

Octavia's date was with Jasper Jordan.

He was kind of handsome, she supposed, in a dorky sort of way. Tall and lanky, with messy brown hair and dark brown eyes. And despite having dressed up for their date, there was something boy-ish about him.

For their date, he'd picked a candlelit dinner at an fancy restaurant downtown. It really wasn't her style, but he was trying to impress her, no doubt.

To Raven's credit, Jasper really _did_ seem like a nice guy. The trouble was… he was boring the hell out of her.

The poor guy was trying so hard to sound confident during their date that he ended up talking about nothing but himself, his family, his job as the lead scientist at a Chem lab, and basically everything else, leaving her no room to enter the "conversation." It was like watching a monologue.

Octavia sat across from him, trying her best to seem interested in whatever the hell he was talking about as she played around with the all too extravagant food arrangement on her plate.

She looked up with a quiet sigh.

It was then that she noticed him for the first time.

On a table to her left was a gorgeous black man. He was sitting by himself. And he was looking right at _her_.

 _God!_ He was so _hot_.

Tall, with brown skin and brown eyes, a light scruff of beard on his face, the lights from above shining on his bald head. He was breathtaking.

The man looked more God than mortal.

This date had just gotten more interesting.

 _Stop looking at him! What's wrong with you?_ She scolded herself. _Focus on Jasper!_

But Jasper was making her sleepy.

It seemed she wasn't the only one bored by Jasper, however. The other man's eyes widened, both amused and shocked, at her date's boring remarks. And she did her best to hide her smirk.

Secretly, Octavia wished herself on a date with the handsome man.

Lincoln had been sitting in this damn restaurant for hours. He was supposed to be on a date, too, but the woman he'd been set up with was apparently a no show.

With nothing to do but wait, he'd entertained himself with the people around him. The couple sitting close to him had gotten his attention.

The woman was beautiful, but she looked sad and lost. The guy she was on a date with was incredibly dull.

 _What did she see in him?_

He wouldn't have been surprised if the poor woman fell asleep on her plate.

Lincoln took a better look at her. She was stunning. He couldn't help but feel especially attracted to her.

What he wouldn't give to be on a date with her…

 _It was time_ , Octavia decided. Time to put herself out of her misery and end this date.

"Jasper, I'm not feeling very well…" she groaned, feigning illness. "Do you mind if we leave?"

"No, no, of course not," he said. "I'll take you home."

When Lincoln saw that she was leaving, he decided it was time to call it quits and finally give up on his failed date. He'd waited for three hours. If she hadn't shown up until now, she wasn't showing. He had to accept the ugly truth, he'd been stood up.

He hurriedly got up and apologized to the _maitre d_ ' for needlessly occupying a table.

When he got out onto the sidewalk, the couple was standing there. He wanted to help her. But _how_? The dull man continued to talk to her, while she looked like she was in distress.

 _Was she really sick?_ he wondered, concern for her filling him.

Lincoln decided to act and walked up to them.

"Hey…" he addressed her, then remembered he didn't know her name. He noticed the necklace she wore and risked, "…O. It's been a while. How have you been?"

Desperate to get out of her date, Octavia decided to go along with it.

"Good, good. Yeah, it's been ages. How are you?"

He nodded. "Good."

"I'll take you home, then?" Jasper suggested helplessly. This Adonis of a man was trying to take his date away…

"It's okay. My friend can take me home. Right?" she prompted.

"Yeah, absolutely," the man agreed immediately. "I'll take you."

Feeling surplus, Jasper grumbled and left, defeated. He wasn't stupid, he could tell when he wasn't wanted.

Octavia watched him leave. She felt badly, but relieved.

She was so done with that date anyway.

After he'd gone, she turned to her savior.

"Thanks for that," she said.

"Sure, no problem."

He examined her quickly. She seemed to be okay, no signs of illness.

"You're not actually sick, are you?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I'm fine. I just needed an excuse to get out of there."

He smiled. "Good."

They stared at each other for a while.

Then, the man pointed at her initial and asked, "What does the O stand for, by the way?"

"Why?"

"I can't just call you O."

She shrugged. "My brother does." Then, she touched the necklace. "Guess," she challenged.

"Olivia?" he tried.

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Too obvious?"

"Yeah," she exclaimed, grinning widely.

"Hmmm," he considered. "Ophelia?"

"Nope."

He looked at her suspiciously.

"It's not Oprah, is it?" he joked, half-serious.

She laughed. "No!"

"Let's see…"

He tried other names like Olive, Olga, Oona. And kept failing.

Until, finally…

"Octavia?"

She snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Ding! Ding! Ding!"

"Octavia…" It sounded like he was savoring her name. It wasn't a common name, but it was beautiful and strong. Like her. "It's very nice to meet you, Octavia."

"You, too, hmm…" She realized then that she didn't know his name yet.

"Lincoln," replied with a smile.

He held out his hand. She took it and they shook hands.

"Hi, Lincoln."

"Well, _Octavia_ ," he began after a moment of silence. "I did promise to take you home and I'm a man of my word."

"Actually…" She didn't want to end their time. They'd just met. Feeling grateful and more than interested in knowing him better, she offered, "Look, I'm starving. I barely ate in there. The good was _far_ too fancy for my taste. Do you… wanna grab some pizza?"

Lincoln smiled. "Sure."

"Come on. I know a place."

The pizza place Octavia had taken him to was pretty small, but it had very good pizza according to her. She said it was a personal favorite of hers.

Lincoln just wanted to please her, her smile was so beautiful.

After placing their order at the counter, they sat at a booth.

Without a word, she removed the elastic that bound her hair and began pulling the bobby pins out of her, letting the dark brown strands fall down freely. Then, she ran her hands through it and massaged her scalp.

 _God, she looked like an angel_ , he thought.

"Ugh, that feels good," Octavia said with a relieved groan.

She noticed him staring.

"What?"

He looked down, bashful. "Nothing."

"So, what were you doing all by yourself in that restaurant?"

"My date ditched me."

"What?" Octavia was perplexed. "Well, she's clearly an idiot."

Lincoln shrugged easily. "Her loss."

 _My gain_ , Octavia added silently. If this mysterious woman hadn't ditched Lincoln, they wouldn't be here right now and she'd have been stuck with her horrible date.

A few minutes later, when their pizza arrived, she dug in.

"I'm starving," she grunted, stuffing her mouth with the delicious food. "I practically didn't eat in that fancy schmancy place. Don't even know why he took me there…"

"He was probably just trying to impress you. I mean, he was obviously into you."

 _Ah!_ So, he'd reached the same conclusion she had. Octavia was left burning with curiosity.

"Were you trying to impress your date too?"

"Following orders, actually." Then, he explained, "Luna, my friend who set me up, told me to pick that restaurant. Apparently, it's the very best in the city."

"Hmm," Octavia considered, chewing a bite of pizza. "Call me old-fashioned, but I'll take pizza over that any day."

Lincoln lifted a slice, as if in a toast.

"Agreed."

"I feel kinda bad, though," she confessed. "He really seemed like a nice guy, but he was just so…"

"Boring?"

She laughed. "Yeah."

"I almost fell asleep a couple of times," he admitted ruefully.

Octavia looked at him and considered the unexpected turn of events that had lead them both here.

"And just to think I could still be on the date from hell and we wouldn't have met," she said. "I wouldn't be here with you, eating this excellent pizza right now."

Lincoln gazed into her eyes lovingly and he grinning, showing the cutest dimples she'd ever seen.

"I'm really glad I intervened, then."

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "And I'm really glad you showed up."

They ate and drank and talked, and before they knew it, a couple of hours had passed by.

"It's getting late," Lincoln informed her, after a glance at his watch. "I'll walk you home."

As they walked down the street, looking at the Halloween decorations that adorned the city, their hands brushed a couple of times.

 _Were they going to hold hands?_

Unsure of what to do next, they just kept walking.

Ahead, they saw a couple standing in front of a flower stand. The man paid the street vendor and handed the bouquet of red roses to the woman. She blushed as she took them.

Both Lincoln and Octavia were very much aware of situation, but said nothing.

A moment later, she wondered aloud, "Do you give flowers to women?"

"Only when I really like a woman."

"Have you met many women you liked?" she risked.

"Not really," he told her. Then, confessed, "I'm actually not that great at the dating game."

"Oh, come on!" she shrieked in outrage. "I bet you have plenty of women after you. I mean, you're so, hmm…" At a loss for words, she shut up and looked down at the ground.

Lincoln laughed.

"No, I don't date a lot. This was my first date in a while and she stood me up, so…"

"Again, she was an idiot," she reiterated.

"What about you? Do you date much?"

Octavia gazed deep into his eyes and knew she could trust him with the truth.

"I actually got out of a relationship recently. He was a real asshole, cheated on me." Lincoln looked at her with a horrified expression. She shrugged. "He never loved me, he only loved _having_ me. It just took me a while to realize it."

"What did you do when you found out?"

"Burned all his clothes and shit," she said with a casual lift of her shoulder.

He was secretly impressed. _Good for her._

"No wrath like a woman scorned, huh?"

"Yeah, exactly," she agreed numbly. _Followed by_ _a lot_ _of moping around and feeling sorry for herself_ , she added silently. "I've been trying to stay away from the whole dating scene since, but my best friend assures me that what I really need is to 'get back out there'. This was my first date since."

They decided to go through the Park, so they could take in the beautiful view and, in a sneaky way, so their walk would last just a little bit longer.

There was a peaceful silence between them as they walked. Then, wordlessly, Lincoln took off ahead of her and stopped in front of a patch of flowers. He bent down and picked a white lily before returning to her side and handing it to her.

"M'Lady," he said, with a slight bow of his head.

But she thought he only gave flowers to women he really liked. Hmm, _interesting_.

She took it and smiled sweetly at him.

"You didn't have to. But thank you."

He shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. "Isn't that what people do on dates?"

 _A date?_

"Are we? On a date?" She lowered her head and sniffed the flower.

"Sure. I mean… we weren't originally. But we've had dinner, talked, gotten to know each other. That's a date, right?"

Octavia stared at him for a while. Then, she nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess it is."

They walked in silence for a little while, but something was bothering her.

"Sorry, just to clarify…" Octavia lifted the lily and frowned at him. "You didn't give me this because you felt sorry for me, right?"

The thought that he might have was killing her.

"No," he swore solemnly. "In fact, I think you're very brave for 'getting back out there' after something like that."

That made her smile. "Thanks."

They turned to her street. Almost at her destination…

"You know, I actually had a really good time tonight," she told him earnestly.

"Me, too. You were quite the surprise, Octavia. But I loved it." His expression changed suddenly, he fell serious. "We probably won't even see each other again after tonight, will we?" The thought of it filled him with sadness.

Octavia considered for a moment.

"Give me your phone," she instructed, holding out her hand.

Lincoln frowned but complied. A minute later, after pressing a few keys, she returned it to him.

"Call me sometime," she said. "We could go out for coffee or something."

"Like a… second date?" he tried.

"Yeah, sure."

When they reached her building's front door, she stopped.

"Well, this is it."

He seemed kind of startled that they'd already reached their final stop.

She was unwilling to say goodbye to Lincoln, she wanted to stay up with him all night. Consequences be damned. What had Shakespeare written in _Romeo and Juliet_? _Parting is such sweet sorrow…_

Her only consolation was Lincoln's look of disappointment. He didn't want their night to end either.

"Thank you for saving me from the most boring date in Human history."

"Again, no problem. I really did have a great time."

She smiled. "Me, too."

They stared at each other for what seemed like a long time.

"Can I kiss you?" Lincoln asked, drowning in longing for her.

She shrugged lightly. "Isn't that what people do on dates?" she teased, repeating his words.

Lincoln lowered his lips to hers slowly and kissed her softly. At first, she responded in kind, kissing him back slow and soft. Then, she pulled him closer, wrapped her arms around his neck, and deepened the kiss. He placed his hands at her waist and let himself get lost in her.

When she pulled away, she dropped her hands to his chest and looked up at him.

"Goodnight."

But Lincoln didn't respond. He still seemed entranced in the moment.

She'd _literally_ left him speechless.

Octavia turned away, smirking and climbed the steps to her building, as she touched her burning lips.

Lincoln watched her walk in.

From behind the glass door, she turned back to look at him. She gave him a little wave, the lily still in her hand, before going up the stairs.

"Goodnight," he whispered.

Octavia arrived home with a dreamy look on her face.

Raven was on the couch, her legs stretched out on the coffee table, flipping channels with a tired expression. When she saw her friend come in, she sat up immediately.

"How'd it go?" she urged.

Octavia considered, and beamed. "Really good, actually."

Her friend's eyes widened, a delighted smile on her lips.

"That's great!"

"Yeah." She nodded in agreement and started toward her bedroom.

"Are you gonna see him again?" Raven called out, burning with curiosity.

Octavia smelled the lily that Lincoln had given her and smiled as she walked. "I hope so."


End file.
